


a (search) party at the end of the world

by breakingthesky



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Minor Hunk/Shay (Voltron), Multi, major ships will be later revealed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-16
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-07 15:45:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14674265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breakingthesky/pseuds/breakingthesky
Summary: [modern/zombie outbreak AU.] While conducting medical experiments, Galra Tech accidentally unleashed a virus onto the country that destroys people from the inside out and rebirths them as 'Beasts', animal-like zombies.("Accidentally.")Three young men (those young men being Keith, Hunk, and Lance) from across the United States travel to a refuge spot in order to find their lost friends, and create a desperately needed alliance in times where the clock is ticking down against them all. [DISCONTINUED (PROBABLY).]





	1. the part where we introduce the unlikely heroes

**Author's Note:**

> welcome to the first chapter of a story I started two years ago for a Tumblr event, discontinued, and picked back up because why not. 
> 
> hope y'all enjoy, I'll do my best to not be an asshole and update semi-regularly!!

** red  **

Keith tasted blood in his mouth.

 

Good news, it wasn’t his. Bad news, _it wasn’t his._

He anxiously rubbed his tongue against the back of his leather glove and scrunched up his face, attempting to get it out of his mouth before anything else weirder were to happen to him. Because frankly, standing around a small circle of now lifeless bodies was weird enough for one day.

 

His knees were practically shaking as he stepped over one of them, being unconsciously careful not to step on anything. He couldn’t look at them again, let alone have to hear the sound of bones cracking or guts spilling again. The violent, queasy cacophony rang in his ears and Keith could’ve sworn he was going deaf.

 

But the important thing was that he was alive—right?

 

Keith Kogane was certainly a lot of things, but he was really only three things: an aviation student, one hell of a fighter, and a terrible fucking liar. So as he wandered back to where he had been forced to leave his motorcycle, he told himself lies that he knew he didn’t believe. Examples include: _you’re gonna be okay, that really wasn’t that big of a deal,_ and Keith’s personal favorite, _Shiro would understand._

 

Shiro.

 

Keith hadn’t seen Shiro since Christmas, a few months now past. Everything was so normal then. They had spent the holidays with the Holts, a family that the adoptive brothers had befriended. Everything had been so normal, peaceful even. The new year had brought about the nightmare.

 

Keith thought about the eggnog he, Shiro, and the Holts had downed in record time and almost cried.

 

“No time for that,” he mumbled aloud to himself, pulling out his keys and pressing his alarm to find the bike. It took a few minutes, but then he could hear a loud, electronic wail, and he sighed in relief.

 

Soon enough, he was back out on the road, doing his best to retrace Shiro’s every last step. Or at least, the ones he knew of. Plus he couldn’t let Mr. and Mrs. Holt down- they were worried sick about him. But then again, the scientific community of the rest of the country was pretty worried as well, so he kind of had a lot riding on his shoulders when it came to finding his brother.

 

It got even worse when Keith got wind of the news that Pidge had gone missing as well. Pidge was the kid sister of the Holt family whose name wasn’t actually Pidge, and she was a bit of a know-it-all and fiery down to her bones, but damn it if Keith didn’t care about her like she was family. He had a secret tendency to latch on to people like that in these rare times that he found such companionship.

 

His eyes got teary and painful often as he rode out onto highway after highway like this. He thought too much. It wasn’t in his nature to be so emotional, but apocalyptic circumstances had a rather unusual effect on people. It wasn’t like anyone could have been prepared for this to happen. Keith had to swallow this all down like cheap whiskey shots, burning a little more each time he realized he was becoming more and more alone.

 

He was starting to forget what he was even riding towards—in a metaphorical sense. Physically, he had been hopping from one makeshift shelter to the next- sometimes he didn’t even bother to stake out, but he needed to stop for a bit. He needed to do a little more groundwork, while not having to be constantly on the run, constantly on the edge of death.

 

After riding more for a while, he managed to stop off in a mostly abandoned suburban neighborhood. Must’ve been fate that he made it that far, because ol’ Red needed to rest. The bike couldn’t carry him forever without proper wiring repairs, and there were a couple little things that he couldn’t do on his own without the proper tools. Out here, he couldn’t get those.

 

There was one stop he had been meaning to make though, to see if it was as real as the rumors printed it out to be.

 

Then again, so was everyone else.

 

* * *

 

** yellow **

Hunk watched the color drain from face after face, teeth rotting, eyes shutting.

 

It was more than enough to make it hard to hold down anything he’d eaten ever, but at least they weren’t hurting anyone here.

 

“I could’ve sworn we were making headway,” someone said from inside the medic tent he was perched outside of. The smile that he held on his face for the team was slipping, but still he tried. He looked out past the comforting cocoon of his school’s campus and towards the horizon, where the rest of the wreckage lay beyond. He hadn’t seen it in a little while. The quarantine kept him a little busy.

 

He thought about Pidge in times like this. He had met her when they were in high school, a younger Pidge who had skipped a grade in both his AP Physics and AP Chemistry classes, and they had clicked hardly like any two friends had before. It was not as long-lived a friendship as he would’ve liked it to be, because Pidge was from a military family that was always on the move. But they kept in touch, and that was certainly enough for him. But in the past couple of months, she had been reported missing, and that got Hunk’s attention attuned to several other disappearances, including ones of more notability.

 

And that was more or less how he ended up as an assistant quarantine medic. He quietly hoped that one of these people would cross his path, and he’d be able to reunite them with their families. Whether it be Pidge, the well-known physicist Takashi Shirogane that Hunk had gotten the chance to meet during a guest lecture, or anybody that Hunk kept on his list of disappearances, he held out. Because really, what else could he do?

 

“Go. Be great,” were the words he remembered Shiro declaring to his class (according to Pidge, when he mentioned Shiro, that was a big thing of his.) Hunk tried to do his best to live that out, but often found himself putting out the fire beneath his feet. It wasn’t that he wasn’t trying. Not by any means. He had gone out on a good few rescue op missions to bring people to the quarantine, and they had saved a lot of lives. But still, he came up empty handed when it came to a lot of the people he was most scared about.

 

His stomach flipped on itself countless times whenever he thought about Pidge, Shiro, his missing sister, and others turning into…

 

The results of the Galra Tech virus had been called a lot of different names and classifications, but many had simply taken to calling them Beasts. Because that was the best way to describe them: absolutely animalistic. It was almost like they died and were revitalized into something far, far away from human behavior.

 

The first time Hunk encountered a Beast, he couldn’t help but stare despite the fact that he was inches from death. It was their eyes, their eyes that had him transfixed. Their pupils were blown wide, almost like staring into a black hole. He couldn’t snap out of it until he realized he had smacked them unconscious with a severed stop sign.

 

The only thought he could process in the midst of panic was, _Well at least I didn’t kill them._

 

At least that way, they had a chance of getting treated.

 

“Garrett?”

 

“Hm?” Hunk replied, snapping out of his thoughts. One of his superiors, Dr. Ishida, stood just a few feet away, nervously holding onto a set of car keys. “Is… everything… okay, Doctor?”

 

“I’ll be upfront with you,” Dr. Ishida hastily explained, “We need you to go locate something for us.”

 

Hunk stood up and let his eyes fall to the keys. “Wh-what is it?”

 

“A repair shop.”

 

“A… repair shop?”

 

Dr. Ishida nodded and tossed Hunk the car keys. “Altea’s Repair Shop. We’ve some information that it’s withholding some potential key essentials to making some curative devices and mixtures.”

 

Hunk caught the keys and began to fiddle with them in a similarly very nervous way. “But why a repair shop?”

 

“Shelters are often made out of the most unlikely places.”

 

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right.” He began picking under his nails with the key, eyes focused down. “But why… why are you sending me?”

 

“You’re the most likely to survive out there right now.” Dr. Ishida stopped for a moment and broke a rare smile. “You’re a bit of a human tank.”

 

Hunk shrugged his shoulders and laughed as well. “I try.”

 

On the inside, he was absolutely _screaming._ There was no way in hell he was going to be able to make it out that far unscathed. But they trusted him, and everyone at the camp needed him.

 

* * *

 

 

** blue **

These days, Lance wasn’t even sure how the skies were still so blue, and how the sun still shined.

 

It was almost insulting to have the weather be so nice when he’d been running for his life for half the day.

 

_Jesus, do they ever give up??_

He rounded the corner and ducked away behind a dumpster, painfully aware of the gun in his holster. He could do it, he could do it in the blink of an eye and then he could rest. Maybe even find somewhere to stay for more than a day or so. But these were real people. Or at least, they used to be. That was enough for Lance to feel blindingly guilty about the prospect of taking these disintegrating lives.

 

_Mama was right, Catholic guilt is absolutely real._

He was going to be so late on his deliveries and there were a lot of lives depending on him getting to the shelters spread across the city. His stomach anxiously sank as his responsibilities kept ramming him in the head. Deliver the supplies, help the people, find Pidge, find Shiro, save the day.

 

_Deliver the supplies, help the people, find Pidge, find Shiro, save the day._

He shakily gripped his gun and shut his eyes for a moment, praying that his mother would forgive for what he was about to do.

 

Growls that had been weakly echoing from a distance were growing louder and louder and Lance knew that now was the time to act. He slowly crept out from the alleyway, looked them up and down, and then began weaving around scattered cars. He shot at them, one by one, careful not to waste too many bullets. He tried to keep himself afloat in the moment by pretending he was an action hero in a movie, fighting for the last threads of humanity. And in a more mundane way, he was.

 

But for now he was just terrified.

It had been on the news a couple months ago, separated by just weeks. Lance’s childhood hero and later friend, Takashi “Shiro” Shirogane, had been announced missing from a huge project at the Kennedy Center in Florida and that had Lance quaking in his boots. That had been where Lance first met Shiro, younger and in freshman year of college and absolutely starry-eyed. Turns out the famous young physicist and pilot-to-be was easily the most grounded and approachable person he had ever met. It was an honor and a privilege to call Shiro his friend.

 

But Lance had originally felt powerless. What was he supposed to do? People were already looking for him, and as much as he wanted to, he was discouraged of getting in the way. It was when his old friend from middle school went missing that he kicked his ass into gear. Katie Holt. Pidge was her famous (or infamous, depending on how you looked at it) moniker that he and her older brother Matt had taken to calling her during their intense Pokemon phase, and she was a tough nut to crack originally, but soon the two became inseparable even after the Holts had to move.

 

He thought about them a lot. He thought about the excuses Galra Tech had made and how they were trying to “find a cure” as quickly as possible, but the collateral damage was too great. Lance McClain wasn’t an idiot.

 

His demeanor said one thing. His making the honor roll almost every semester said another.

 

But then again, college was a little hard to think about when school had been let out early due to “hostile living conditions.” Would he ever be able to go back?

 

He added another thing to his list. _Deliver the supplies, help the people, find Pidge, find Shiro, save the day, graduate._

_… I sound like a shitty high school book protagonist. Cool, cool. I can roll with it._

He made it to the end of the block in one piece, barely taking the time to look at the carnage left. To him, it wasn’t worth it, because looking back meant that it was actually getting to him. He needed to get to his car. He needed to not think about the dirt and blood beneath his fingernails and just floor it to his next destination.

_Altea’s Repair Shop_ – the nearest shelter for miles and miles. It had been on his list for some time, but progress was slow, and he did what he could. That’s all he could ever do.

 

 

 


	2. the part where the heroes begin on their journeys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance, Keith, and Hunk all have their own separate journeys to get to Altea's Repair Shop.  
> Allura reflects on how this all came to be.
> 
> Maybe things won't be so bad.
> 
> (But then again, Shiro and Pidge are still fucking missing and people are still dying. So.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!
> 
> For anyone interested in the fic, thank you! It's gonna be in weird format on and off because of the multi-character perspective, but I hope it works!

Altea’s Repair Shop never planned to be a refugee site, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

 

Hundreds of people travelled in and out of the place, seeking food, water, a decent human conversation even, just to endure what was on the outside. Only two of the employees were left at the shop these days: the owner’s daughter and the head mechanic. They were certainly growing a little weary, but they kept their brave faces on. That’s all they could do. At the very least, the perpetrators from Galra Tech had next to no idea where they actually were.

 

Allura prided herself on how covert they managed to keep their operations. Those days, nothing was safe. The _second_ that she got wind of Galra Tech being behind the Beast virus, the distrust shot straight through her. Her father used to work with a couple heads of the medical tech company, and there was something… off.

 

She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but every day, she was a little closer to figuring it out. But for now, she was preoccupied with running one of the most popular refuge spots on the West Coast.

 

She had been busy all day tracking shipments from every which way. She was expecting an influx of passerbys in the coming month; the Beasts were starting to migrate around the area, and it made her nervous. What if they were put there on purpose?

 

_No, don’t think like that. It won’t do you any good._

 

“Coran!” Allura yelled into the other room, “Have you seen where we put the other ice cooler? We’re going to need it.”

 

Coran stuck his head out from the office and shouted back, “I think I might’ve seen it in the truck last, actually!”

 

“Ugh, alright.”

 

Allura shivered slightly as she pulled on her coat and trekked out around to the back of the shop, gently clutching the pistol in her left pocket.

 

“ _Is this the famous Altea’s?”_

Her gaze shot up, almost ready to attack, but she lowered her defense once she saw it was a young man in an old pickup truck. The cocky tone of his voice and the smirk on his face betrayed the exhaustion in his eyes.

 

“Yeah, I guess this is,” Allura replied, laughing under her breath. “And who are you supposed to be?”

 

“Name’s Lance,” he uttered, slowly getting out of the truck. Now, this was easily the most beautiful young woman he had seen in what felt like a lifetime, but even he knew where responsibilities lied. Sometimes. It was best to not get too attached right now. “I’m one of the supply runners, got your cargo right here in Ol’ Blue.”

 

She exhaled in official relief and walked more confidently towards the back of the truck. Lance followed her and popped open the back, untying all the boxes and crates.

 

Now, as much as he wanted to just get in and get out, there were those lingering questions burning in the back of his mind. ( _Don’t ask if she’s single, you have more important questions,_ his inner voice pestered. _Plus… I can’t. I can’t._ )

 

“Where do you wanna take these?” he asked, pulling the dolley out from behind the boxes.

 

“I’ll open the back garage for you,” Allura offered in return, quickly moving back inside to pull the rolling door up. Lance snuck in through as the door lifted and began to unload the supplies. But he couldn’t help but take a look around. This really was the place to go – it looked like the closest thing he had ever seen that was closest to a bomb shelter. “So, Lance, where are you coming from?”

 

“Currently? I just crawled my way out of the hellpit of what was Phoenix. Lived in Arizona for half my life – but I’m originally from Cuba. If I had the means, I’d go back – but who knows how far the virus has spread.”

 

“I’m not quite sure how far it’s gone either.” Allura nodded in understanding as she stacked some of the new rations boxes. “I grew up in the UK before my father and I had to move, and I think every day about how it could somehow already be there. How people I love, who I haven’t seen in years, could be dead.”

 

“Yikes.”

 

She paused, embarrassed. “Too much. I apologize.”

 

“Don’t.” He gave a sleepy chuckle in return. “I totally get it.”

 

The two fell silent as they finished loading up Altea’s, both wanting to ask questions but not quite knowing how. Coran joined them and couldn’t help but take note of the wear and tear on the two young people. It wore on his heart to see the younger generation burden so much of the responsibility.

 

“You there,” Coran piped up, snapping and pointing at Lance, “You’re not going anywhere tonight. You need some rest.”

Lance looked around before realizing he could really only be talking to one of two people. “I really should get goin’—“

 

“Nope. No, absolutely not. You can barely keep your eyes open, and I’m not being held responsible for any accidents that could occur.”

 

Allura smiled and leaned into him slightly. “It’s best if you listen to him.” That caused him to smile genuinely, sincerely, for the first time all day. “Plus you probably do want to be awake to fight off Beasts.”

 

“Please, I can swing through a dozen of ‘em in my sleep. But alright, I’ll stay. Thank you.” He bit his tongue for a minute before continuing, in Allura’s direction. “Thanks for worrying about me, gorgeous.”

 

Allura rolled her eyes, but still managed a short laugh. “Don’t track the dirt in.”

 

“Yes ma’am.”

 

He seemed… capable, to say the least. A thought popped into her mind. He could potentially be of great use to her. Galra Tech was a few steps away from coming undone with the right people at the helm of it…

 

She paused for a moment before continuing, “Lance?”

 

“Hm?” He rubbed his eyes and yawned through the sound. She sighed and recoiled.

 

“Nevermind. I’ll talk to you in the morning. Get some sleep, you need it.”

 

“…Thanks.”

 

He settled in for what was the first secure night in a long time. He only wished he could tell his family that he was going to be safe – long-distance communication was pretty risky with civilian devices. So he would have to settle with the last letters they exchanged. Thoughts of Pidge, of Shiro, of the new woman swirled through his head – what was coming for them all?

 

As the young man took into his cot, Allura retreated back into her office and flipped through the letters her father had left behind. She traced her fingers over every letter on every page, and hoped that she was doing him proud.

 

She hoped that he would forgive her for risking everything.

 

* * *

 

Faint growls could always be heard in the night, from all directions. Beasts tended to migrate in the late hours. They were unusual that way: no longer human, almost animalistic.

 

Two young men were headed for Altea’s from different sides, and they worried about whatever could be on their tail. The off-road vehicle Hunk was driving had the weight to bear an attack, and the bike Keith was on was fast enough to outrun them. _I could still be putting people in danger,_ they both thought, _But I don’t have much of a choice._

* * *

 

Even with the looming fear, Keith still loved the nighttime. The stars didn’t stop being beautiful just because the world below got a little extra ugly.

_Keith remembered the first time he had to out-drive a Beast on his tail. It was before Shiro had disappeared, but the Galra Virus had made its mark on society already, and they had every reason to be afraid. Shiro warned him a thousand times to “not go off on your own in the middle of the night”, but as any arrogant kid would, he disregarded the forewarning and did exactly that._

 

_He took off on his bike to go star-gaze, of course. As he drove away from town, it grew quieter and quieter around him. He could hear his heart beating through his ears; even though it raced with the speed of his bike, it lulled him into a rare calmness. Nothing could bother him out there. He liked it._

_But something, miles away, heard the bike roar past. Something was picking up speed on the stargazer._

_The young man reached his vantage point at the top of a hill, and kicked his brake down. He couldn’t even bother to get off his bike before becoming captured by the view above him. His brain stopped going a million miles an hour for those precious moments._

_In the back of his mind lied a vague memory of his father showing him the constellations for the first time. He remembered him pointing out the star he named after Keith’s mother. Maybe if he followed that star long enough, he’d find her…_

_Then he heard it._

_A low growl came from the basin of the canyon, just below him. He dared to peek over the edge, and there it was, staring him down with its sickly eyes. He pulled the shotgun from his holster and fired it down before taking back off on his bike._

_From behind him, the Beast climbed – **climbed** —the side of the cliff, chasing after him. (He wouldn’t realize this until he went back months after and saw the damage that the Beast left.)_

**_Shiro’s gonna kick my ass if I don’t die first._ **

****

_Sweat ran down his face. Heartbeat was kick-drumming in his aching chest. And those eyes, something about those eyes was sending chills down his spine. It was something frightening, something primal that he didn’t understand._

_He rode all night, until he finally stopped hearing the growls and the screams, until his bike was on its last drops of fuel._

_When he finally forced himself to stop at a gas station, he looked around every which way—and nothing. He couldn’t even see the second set of tracks anymore._

_He pulled his phone from his pocket – 10 missed calls, from Shiro._

_Keith shakily called Shiro back, and before the elder could get a word in, he murmured, “You were right. There. You were fucking right.”_

_Shiro sighed from the other side of the line. “Are you okay?”_

_Shiro was the only person in the universe who Keith could ever admit this to: “No. I’m scared to even drive home.”_

_Turns out he wouldn’t have much of a choice in the months to come._

He carried that thought with him everywhere he went. He quietly blamed himself for every innocent person he couldn’t save, for Shiro and Pidge going missing, for everything – his stoicism betrayed the hurricane in his heart.

 

All he could do was keep going and hope that they weren’t dead. (Or that he wouldn’t die first.)

 

He caught a glimpse of his watch and huffed – he was close. He feared that the growl in his stomach was actually something behind him. But Keith didn’t look back for anything. So he kept driving on through the night, speeding closer and closer towards the glow of refuge.

 

At roughly 3:31 a.m., he made it. (Barely.) He quietly knocked at the door.

 

Coran was the one to answer the door, hair and moustache both sticking out in all directions. “Hm? Yes?”

 

“This is Altea’s, correct?”

 

“The very one.” Coran looked the young man up and down, and could tell everything about him from the dust covering his jacket to the crust in his eyes. “C’mon in. We’ll get you a place to rest your head.”

 

Keith smiled.

* * *

 

 

Hunk shone his hi-beams into the abysmal night, hoping and praying he wouldn’t see anything staring back at him. The night always felt full of eyes.

 

_We’re all counting on you,_ the doctor’s voice echoed in his head. _We need you, we need you, we need you…_

He caught himself mid-spiral and took a deep breath, loosening his death grip on the wheel. The downside of traveling in the off-roader was that it was weighed down by its size, so it was taking a little longer than he had hoped. It shook the dust around it, and threatened to awake what lied beneath.

 

“You’re good, man,” Hunk muttered to himself, turning up his music just a little, “You’re good, you’re good.”

 

By the terms of his map, he wouldn’t make it to the area surrounding Altea’s until morning. He wasn’t sure where he could stop and rest. But he had to – he didn’t trust himself at the wheel running on fumes and snacks alone. Dr. Ishida would be chiding him right now for even considering it.

 

“I’m sure they’ll understand.”

 

He looked around what was slowly turning into a desert scape. He was hoping for some sort of forest to pop up so he could burrow away, but that didn’t work in… _Nevada? I think that’s where I am._

There had to be a motel somewhere along the endless roads.

(And sure enough, after another hour, there was.)

 

Hunk finally pulled in to the miniscule parking lot outside the motel and felt his jaw relax and his shoulders un-clench. _Balmera Motel,_ the faint green sign read.

The name was different, sounded cool. He liked the sound of it.

 

He locked up the car, slung his backpack over his shoulder, and made his way to the lobby. Sitting behind the counter was a tall young woman with pretty braids in her hair, and Hunk couldn’t help but grin. She seemed very focused on whatever she was crafting on the front desk.

 

“Excuse me?” he softly spoke, not wanting to startle her. As he got closer, he read her nametag – Shay. “Are there rooms available for the night?”

 

She looked up from her little project – some sort of necklace – and immediately responded, “Definitely.”

 

Hunk didn’t question her eagerness – a friendly face was more than welcome. “It’s not ideal, but we keep things running for travelers,” she added.

 

He smiled softly in return and started to reach into his backpack for his wallet. “This traveler really appreciates it,” he quipped, stopping for a moment to look at her again. “How much do I owe you?”

 

Shay tapped her index finger on her face for a moment, processing. “Hm… This one’s on the house.”

 

Hunk completely halted, mid-pulling out his funds. “No. No way. I can’t let you do that.”

 

“Too late, transaction’s been completed.” She pulled out a key and tossed it to him. “You look like you’ll be leaving by morning – seems silly. Plus from the looks of that ride of yours, you’re off to something important.”

 

Hunk glanced out the window and slumped his shoulders a bit, embarrassed by how obvious his ride now seemed. “I guess it’s mildly important. But I can’t keep my eyes open on the road after a while.”

 

“I get it. Follow me.”

 

Shay stepped out and led Hunk to a small, vacant room – clean enough for him not to get too picky about it for the night. They said their goodnights, and he shut the door behind him softly. It was nice to run into a kind soul every now and again. (It wasn’t that everyone back at the camp wasn’t nice, it was just that they were always stressed, and people fought a lot, _and it made him kinda anxious_ , and…)

He shook his head and flopped back on the bed, barely even remembering closing his eyes before drifting off to sleep.


End file.
